When people throw out the “but how can atheists be moral” argument, I often respond with “if it turns out that there is a heaven, it will be full of atheists, because only their good acts are untainted by the threat of eternal damnation.”
And if they’re a member of one of those loophole religions that believe you only have to accept Jesus to get into heaven, and good works don’t matter, I point out the numerous places in the bible that contradict that notion.
During WW2, the author Evelyn Waugh was posted with Randolph Churchill (Winston’s son), who would appear to have been irritatingly garrulous: in an attempt to get him to shut up, Waugh and another officer bet him £20 he couldn’t read the Bible in a fortnight. The effect, unfortunately, was the opposite to that intended: Churchill would insist on quoting passages while laughing and announcing “God, isn’t God a shit!”
And what would those areas be, in this case?
He’s great on Family Feud. Seriously.
I know he’s a shallow-dumb misogynistic person but he’s quick on the uptake on that show. I don’t even call watching it a guilty pleasure because I got no guilt about it - I just call it enjoyable every-now-and-then nonsense viewing.
But, sure… big–picture; eff that guy and his sad-despicable anti-science, anti-women, anti-atheist crap.
Most aspects of Christianity in the last 400 years haven’t been anti-science. The pro-ignorance “fundamentalist” movement was made up out of whole cloth in the 19th century and didn’t gain traction until a couple of generations ago; it’s no more Christian than the National Socialists were Socialists. It relishes the cruellest parts of the old testament, but functionally holds the Gospels-- the actual words of Jesus-- in contempt.
When you’re religion-free, it’s easy to dismiss fundamentalism as a showcase of how dumb Christianity is, but a more acute (and probably more persuasive) point is that these attitudes make you a shitty Christian. I would ask Catholics and Episcopalians and Presbyterians and Methodists, who’s really being more Christ-like: a scientist dedicated to seeking truth through the direct study of God’s creation, or a fundamentalist bigot unquestioningly worshipping some sweaty old demagogue in a leisure suit?
Though, this is probably overthinking it when it comes to Steve Harvey. I’ll just toss his name into the mental file marked “dipshits” and not worry about it again.
I find the idea that you are only good because you are being watched by an invisible beard man scary.
Here’s one of several BIG QUESTIONs about Steve Harvey’s morals and mindset;
Why does Steve Harvey need to be REUNITED - 30 years later - with the family that took him in when he had nothing - and supported him while he was a ‘struggling down-on-his-luck comedian’ and financed his stand-up travels…?
–> link to short article and vid: http://bit.ly/1kdAqFJ
Why was he not in constant contact with these wonderful+helpful people over the years?
Because… maybe… Steve Harvey has always been an immoral, small-minded person… who does happen to be pretty funny (for certain niches).
Well, apes HAVE entered the stone age. http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150818-chimps-living-in-the-stone-age
I guess god did that.
I see where this is going.
No, Sir, that I do not.
And I doubt very much that he believes in me, either.
I had this argument with a religious guy a few years ago. His contention was that “all morals come from God”-- except he was a very devout Christian, and I pointed out that since most religions shared the same core moral prohibitions against murder, theft, dishonesty, adultery, etc., that meant he was acknowledging that those “pagan” religions had a valid connection to god (otherwise, where did they get their morals?) This idea seemed to perplex him (or maybe he just decided to ignore me at that point.)
There is something funny to me about a person who doesn’t believe in the scientific evidence for evolution using the term “moral barometer”.
A barometer is a scientific instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure. I wonder if Steve Harvey believes in climate change theory.
Perhaps the climate scientists are more trust-worthy than those scientists making up stories about how we could be related to apes.
More to the point, why we still got Steve Harvey?
(please please please please be on medievalist’s Christmas list…!)[fingers crossed]
The sad thing is that your kidlet probably heard your answer and thought “hmm… that makes sense. Ok!”.
You could explain the same to this adult over and over again, and he wouldn’t show the same processing power…
Exactly this! When I explain that I was raised Buddhist, well meaning people always tend to say something along the lines of “but but but, you’ll burn in hell, and not get to spend eternity with God!”. To which my thought process is “I’m not sure I want to spend forever with some emotionally stunted dick who would burn me forever for not being his personal cheerleader (even if I’m an awesome person in every other respect)[Which I am BTW…])”. I imagine it like being trapped with the school bully for the rest of forever.
Jeepers creepers!
I did too, as a kid. It caused me no end of anxiety and depression and fear until I eventually studied christianity and saw that anything the christians have to say about god is bullshit, and doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. There is no god. Or at least there is no evidence for a god. So what’s there to worry about?
These days, even if you could prove to me that there is a god with incontrovertible evidence, I may stop being an atheist, but there’s no way I’m going to worship that murderous, rape-commanding, genocidal, schizophrenic lunatic of a deity. He ought to be grovelling on his knees begging our forgiveness for how badly he fucked up making us and the world.
If we we don’t have evolution because we still have monkeys, then what about pork-cupine?
You know, all this relationship advice and moralizing from him feels rather uncomfortably like another prominent comedian who was just as prone to lectures about moral behavior. At least when he wasn’t spiking drinks.
